Model Airplanes

[3rdCrucisLancers]

I build model airplanes as a hobby--right now my wife is in grad school in another, even colder state, and so I have a lot of time on my hands. Any other builders out there on the forums? I don't claim to be very good, but I think I do manage to build more models than a lot of better modelers. Quantity has a quality all its own.

Here's a quick shot of pretty much everything I built this year:


All in 1/72: Spitfire I, 2 x Spitfire Ia, Spitfire II, Spitfire Vb, Spitfire Vc Trop, Spitfire HF.VI, 2 x Spitfire VIII, 3 x Spitfire IXc, Spitfire XII, 3 x Spitfire XIV (XIVc, XIVe, FR.XIVe), Spitfire LF.XVIe, Spitfire F.24, Spiteful F.14, Seafire IIc, Seafire IIc Hybrid, Seafang F.32, Hurricane I, Hurricane IIb Trop, Hurricane IIc Trop, Sea Hurricane Ib, Barracuda II, Fulmar I, Firefly FR.I, Corsair IV ("Hammy" Grey, RCNVR VC's aircraft), Hellcat II, Mustang III, and Bf109E-3 (boo, hiss!).

Right now I'm working on:
Bf110C-4
Ju88A-4
Do17E
Fw190D-9
Hudson I
Corsair II
All by Airfix.

Xtrakit Spitfire F.22

AZ Models Wildcat VI, which is not going well.

I have in the stash:
3 x Tamiya Spitfire Vb
Special Hobby Hawker Sea Hawk FGA.6
Trumpeter Westland Wyvern
Cyber-Hobby Sea Vixen FAW.1
Hasegawa Ki-43-I
Hasegawa Ki-43-II
Hasegawa A6M2-21
Hasegawa B5N2
Hasegawa D3A1
Ancient Monogram Do17Z

What about you?

[Spector]

I used to ages ago and I want to get back into it again. Especially since I am far more patient and have better gluing skills. I might be able to get the landing gear to stay straight now...

[Sigma]

Those are some great planes.

My N-scale mini/model line has blurred so much I don't even know what is what anymore. All I care about is scale. :D

[Grim_Reaper]

was it just me or (for just a fraction of a second) at first glance did anyone else get the impression of the surface of an aircraft carrier before realizing it was a shelf?

[HobbesHurlbut]

I see you have a fairly large number of COmmonwealth planes, but I don't see Whirlwind, Typhoon, or Beaufighter?

[3rdCrucisLancers]

I see you have a fairly large number of COmmonwealth planes, but I don't see Whirlwind, Typhoon, or Beaufighter?

I actually forgot my Typhoon, it's almost done. Just needs decals. No Beaufighter, Whirlwind, or Mosquito yet, alas.

[Stormlion1]

I on occasion like to build modern military aircraft, usually in 1/144th scale. I have a B-52 on the workbench right now. I already have one built now so the plan is to convert it to look like the Old Dog from the Dale Brown novels, I'm going to scratch build the SST nose and the twin V-tale and pack it to the hilt with underwing missiles.

[PsihoKekec]

Now that's a lot of Spitfires.
It's been two years since I last built a model, but I was more into tanks than airplanes, so only one Spitfire for me.

[I am Belch II]

Very Nice!!!

[Desert Raider]

Nice! Very Nice. My particular vice is armor, 1/35th scale, and usually German/Italian.('Cuz you can only build so many olive drab vehicles...) Takes me awhile, because I actually take the time to research paint schemes, insignia and the like. Latest projects tend to be the assortment of "Paper Panzer" kit coming outs... deigns that were prototypes  or on the drawing board as the war ended. That, and my model trains, which I can't set up because Mom's (ended up living back at home) basement floods regularly

[ShadowRaven]

I'm starting to get back into it. Though I have a preference towards giant robots, I'm still going to do a few classic warbirds, and maybe a couple of classic cars as well.

[3rdCrucisLancers]

Nice! Very Nice. My particular vice is armor, 1/35th scale, and usually German/Italian.('Cuz you can only build so many olive drab vehicles...) Takes me awhile, because I actually take the time to research paint schemes, insignia and the like. Latest projects tend to be the assortment of "Paper Panzer" kit coming outs... deigns that were prototypes  or on the drawing board as the war ended. That, and my model trains, which I can't set up because Mom's (ended up living back at home) basement floods regularly

I'm fortunate in that there are a lot of well-researched aftermarket decal sets for 1/72 aircraft and lots of information on aircraft serial numbers; cuts down a lot on the research I need to do as compared to armor kits. I'm fond of British "What-Ifs" myself; besides the Spiteful and Seafang (stillborn evolutions of the Spitfire and Seafire with Mustang-style laminar-flow wings) I also have injection-molded and resin Martin-Baker MB5 kits to build. I have to pack everything away when my wife's birds are home, because they fly into stuff; the doves wrecked several Spitfire XIVs' landing gear before I wised up. 1/35 is too big for me, though; you have to be really good to work in that scale, where it's much easier to spot errors.

[God and Davion]

Nice models! Whoooa.. that's a lot of Spitfires...  O0 O0

I have done 5 models... Airfix Spitfire, Italieri Corsair, Tamiya Fw190 A6 and Hasegawa FW190A8 R2 in 1/72 and Revell A-90 Orlyonok in 1/144. The next one is a Tamiya 1/72 Thunderbolt with several aftermarkets... but I'm too busy right now.

[wasp]

Great shot 3CL.  I would like to see some Mosquitos added to your collection too. 

Wasp

[Moonsword]

Nice photo and good work on the models, too.

[CrossfirePilot]

Nice I thought a few years ago i should get back into it, but found my skills or patience or attention span hasnt improved over the last 15 years.  A bomber or two might look nice.

[nerd]

I'm getting back into from 3CL's peer pressure.  ;)

I've got a Pegasus Hobbies 1:72 (IIRC) Spitfire Mk. I that's a remarkably nice snap-together done right now, and I'm working on a Revellogram A-4 Skyhawk that I'm completeing as John McCain's from a very bad day on the Forrestal.

[CrossfirePilot]

Quick count of hands, how many people here when they are making an airplane model, at some point in the process pretend it is flying while making engine noises?

[3rdCrucisLancers]

Quick count of hands, how many people here when they are making an airplane model, at some point in the process pretend it is flying while making engine noises?

I...I don't have to answer that question.

But I will say that there's a reason I now build them with the gear down. If my wife caught me (hypothetically, of course!), I'd never hear the end of it.

[greatsarcasmo]

I just picked up a BEAUTIFUL airfix Spitfire MK 1. Seriously, for the cost (<$10.) It is the nicest 1/72 scale plane I've seen. Recessed panel lines that were so, so nice. I also got a Revel BF109 that is HORRIBLE...
I've also been picking up 1/72 & 76 armor.

[3rdCrucisLancers]

The Airfix Spitfire I/Ia/II kits (all made from the same base kit) are amazing. A dream to build, one of my personal favorite kits.

[CrossfirePilot]

I...I don't have to answer that question.

But I will say that there's a reason I now build them with the gear down. If my wife caught me (hypothetically, of course!), I'd never hear the end of it.

yeah good call.  with the landing gear down i always use the excuse: "i am visualizing my approach for my next flight"

[fltadm]

I use to build a few but it has been on hiatous for a few years now . I realy need to finish by half conpleated AV-98 and HMS Victorious

[sillybrit]

Wow, that's a great Spitfire collection. [drool]

I used to make a lot of model kits back in the day, mostly Airfix with the occasional Revel, after I dad got me hooked as a kid. Mostly WW2 aircraft, a few jets and some ships, plus a couple of those diorama sets that Airfix used to make. Sadly, my last project was destroyed a day after completion: I'd proudly (and in retrospect, stupidly) placed the Wasa on top of the TV for my parents to admire and then left it there overnight. The cats thought that there was something new to explore, resulting in broken masts & shredded rigging, with the GSDs happily finishing the job on the hull when they found the new "chew toy" on the floor. Cats are evil.

[3rdCrucisLancers]

Cats are evil.

They have nothing on my wife's doves. Those bloody birds have smashed more Spitfires than the Fw190.

Wow, that's a great Spitfire collection. [drool]

It's my favorite airplane of all time. Of all time! When I was eight, I wrote J. E. "Johnnie" Johnson, the RAF's top British ace of WWII, and he sent me an autographed copy of his memoirs and a handwritten letter. A very great gentleman. I also wrote a letter to the Spitfire Society, and they put me in touch with many RAF (and one RN and one USAAF) Spitfire/Seafire pilots, who very kindly sent me period photos of themselves with their impossibly beautiful aircraft.

Here's my most recent project, Johnnie Johnson's Spitfire in D-Day stripes. I masked the stripes using 6mm Tamiya tape. I think this is probably my best work so far, though I could still screw it up yet.

[sillybrit]

That picture there shows one of the most beautiful aspects of the Spitfire: that graceful elliptical wing.

Then add in the poetry of the Merlin's growl, a sound that always got me bolting for the nearest doorway or window to try and catch a glimpse of the source. Of course, sometimes I was cheated and it was "just" one of the Battle of Britain Flight's Hurricanes.  (Unashamed Spitfire snob)

[Siberian-troll]

Wow, nice.
I was in it too, ten years ago.  But I been into WWI  :-[

Still have row of my rare scratchbuilds, like Sikorsky C.XIX, twin boom trimotor attack plane

[






Hmmm, I should someday make a better pics, then these, which been made several years ago. 

[ShadowRaven]

They have nothing on my wife's doves. Those bloody birds have smashed more Spitfires than the Fw190.

Pure Envy I assure you. Doves tend to view themselves as the most beautiful winged creation under heaven. When faced with something as graceful and elegant as a Supermarine Spitfire, even at a fraction of it's size and glory. Well they just can't cope, and it drives them to madness and acts of violence.

[3rdCrucisLancers]

Wow, nice.
I was in it too, ten years ago.  But I been into WWI  :-[

Still have row of my rare scratchbuilds, like Sikorsky C.XIX, twin boom trimotor attack plane

Holy crap! I should have known you'd do something spectacular! WWI stuff is too hard for me, I can't handle the challenge of rigging. Most of the Russian kits I see in the USA are old Frog molds re-used; were there any Russian kitmakers who're highly regarded in Russia?

[Luciora]

Mm I should get a Spitfire for my growing collection now.  I started off on WW2 planes for my modeling addiction too.  I have a Frogfoot and a Privateer on my current to-do list, just finished a Hien and a Mazinger Z kit last week.

[Siberian-troll]

Holy crap! I should have known you'd do something spectacular! WWI stuff is too hard for me, I can't handle the challenge of rigging. Most of the Russian kits I see in the USA are old Frog molds re-used; were there any Russian kitmakers who're highly regarded in Russia?

Roden - they best from the best.  They even do Zeppelin-Staaken into 1:72!!!
ICM - nice and cheap
Amodel - cheap and again cheap - should cometh with 2 needle files free.

Rigging been not so hard with nice syntetic thread, needles and tiny drops of zyan-ack between planes and struts.

Some other pics of my old collection, can be seen here:
http://siberian-troll.livejournal.com/12092.html
http://siberian-troll.livejournal.com/11728.html
http://siberian-troll.livejournal.com/11379.html

[deathshadow]

I used to have a massive collection, but four moves later it's all gone and right now, I just don't have the room with all my other hobbies in the way. I've considered getting back into it, but the prices are insane these days; the kits I remember paying a few bucks for being enough to get a dinner for two.

I wasn't really into the prop-job thing though -- I think I made a FW-190 and that was it... well, and a B-24 in the same paint (dragon lady) as one of my grandfathers served on.

For me it was mostly about golden age of jet flight -- Mig-15, F-100, F-86, Vought F-4U, BAC Lightning, etc... and more unusual aircraft like the X-series, the B-58, etc. I had a few more recent aircraft thrown in, but even there it was about the odd ducks like the F-16XL, the Tornado GR1X (that's a tornado with a delta wing!), F-16AFTI, F-20, IAI Lavi, etc.

Wish I had the room and the $$$ to pick up the hobby again, but neither looks to be happening any time soon. In the meantime though, could always show off my Deathshadow, Yukikaze and Sturmgeshutz... the only models I still have. Not airplanes, but they're at least plastic models I painted.


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Sturmgeshutz pictures are in here:
http://battletech.hopto.org/images/models/

All of them are really small scale because, well, it's all I have room for.

[3rdCrucisLancers]

Impressive paintwork, DS! Freehand, I assume?

I just got my first two jet models, a Hawker Sea Hawk and a De Havilland Sea Vixen. I plan on building a 56 Squadron Lightning F.1 as it looked during the fly-by of Churchill's funeral.

[deathshadow]

Impressive paintwork, DS! Freehand, I assume?

Pretty much -- in fact it's the same process I use for doing minis.

http://battletech.hopto.org/deathshadow/ds_Minis_Tutorial_FireFalcon.html

Excuse the horribly outdated website link -- I've got... about 16 days before I relaunch a updated personal BT site... The Deathshadow is done in almost the exact same manner, just with royal blue and gold for some of the metallic areas. The technique of using testors dullcoat as both primer and sealer with cheap acrylic paints seems to work well for just about any type of model... and is nowhere near as messy as regular model acrylics -- which to be honest are too thick and destroy anything resembling panel lines in the model.

[Xtrahmxwohld]

I used to build sci-fi craft and mecha, but didn't have any room after my daughter was born. I have the room now, but prefer to be upstairs with the girls and so it's mniatures.

I have an airbrush, but my compressor puts out too high of pressure and it doesn't have any way to dial it back. Someday I hope to fix that but there's too many other projects around the house to finish first.

[WarGod]

every once in great while I'll knock out a 1/35 or 1/48th scale.  Right now I have in box is a thunder chief.   last one I knocked out was a F4 phantom, wild weasel, with ARM missles, and ECM pods.  Before the F-4 was a first gen MIG.  I use my air brush quite a bit, and none of my stuff is show room pretty.  Thanks to the locale air craft measume, I can find some good weathering ideas.  I still do the occasional armor model,but its a bit by bit thing as I get extra parts, or add ons.  I used to do gundam kits, but got kinda tired of them, was thinking of getting the 1/60th "tamahawk" (warhammer) and doing its up as the black widow.  I would kill to find the Dropship from aliens. 

[Stormlion1]

When I look at WW-1 era aircraft I can't get the song "those magnificent men and there flying machines" out of my head. Except for a single model of a Sopwith Camel I don't think I've built anything from before 1950 when it comes to aircraft.

[CrossfirePilot]

for some reason, my favorite way to build WW1 is balsa and tissue.  Just seems right to me.

[Euphonium]

I haven't built a model kit since erm.....   The late '90s?
All my models, including the unbuilt ones, are up in the attic somewhere.

I was thinking about starting again now my wife and I are separated, but I've ended up with the kids full-time, so I'm still way too busy (at least until they're old enough to start building them with me :) )

In the mean time, I've just found the old balsa-skeleton of a Gloster Gladiator that my dad built as a teenager.   It was intended as a free-flying model, the wingspan is about 30".  My borther-in-law reckons we could probably convert it for radio-control with modern parts.

[foxbat]

Wow, Siberian Troll, this is a really top notch bit of a plane here. I've never dared to get into WW1 at that scale, as you need to have all the wiring on board. Congrats on our collection too, 3CL. [applause]

This said, I did these about 2 years ago, for a stillborn project of a club homegrown WW2 air combat rule (never went beyond one or two playtests)

[Siberian-troll]

Wow, it's a really amazing pictures, Foxbat!!!

Superb  O0

[mathesont]

Built quite a few WW2 airplanes when I was a youngster, all of which ended up hung in the peach tree out back and shot down  :)

[DaveMac]

All mine are in my parents loft and haven't been looked at for a couple of decades.

I wonder if the 1/72 Gigant is still up there...

[bytor]

All in 1/72: Spitfire I, 2 x Spitfire Ia, Spitfire II, Spitfire Vb, Spitfire Vc Trop, Spitfire HF.VI, 2 x Spitfire VIII, 3 x Spitfire IXc, Spitfire XII, 3 x Spitfire XIV (XIVc, XIVe, FR.XIVe), Spitfire LF.XVIe, Spitfire F.24, Spiteful F.14, Seafire IIc, Seafire IIc Hybrid, Seafang F.32, Hurricane I, Hurricane IIb Trop, Hurricane IIc Trop, Sea Hurricane Ib, Barracuda II, Fulmar I, Firefly FR.I, Corsair IV ("Hammy" Grey, RCNVR VC's aircraft), Hellcat II, Mustang III, and Bf109E-3 (boo, hiss!).

Right now I'm working on:
Bf110C-4
Ju88A-4
Do17E
Fw190D-9
Hudson I
Corsair II
All by Airfix.

Xtrakit Spitfire F.22

AZ Models Wildcat VI, which is not going well.

I have in the stash:
3 x Tamiya Spitfire Vb
Special Hobby Hawker Sea Hawk FGA.6
Trumpeter Westland Wyvern
Cyber-Hobby Sea Vixen FAW.1
Hasegawa Ki-43-I
Hasegawa Ki-43-II
Hasegawa A6M2-21
Hasegawa B5N2
Hasegawa D3A1
Ancient Monogram Do17Z

What about you?

What, no Hawker Tempest V?  ;) 

You have a very nice collection there.  I'm a big fan of the Spitfire as well.  I like that you did "Hammy" Grey's Corsair.  O0

I have a few that are sitting in my closet that I haven't finish.  In fact, I haven't touched them since before the last time this topic came up.  I have an Academy 1/72 scale Spitfire XIV that I only got as far as painting the cockpit.  I also have, all in 1/72 scale and in various stages of completion: P-40B, P-51C, F4U-1A, Hawker Tempest V, and a P-47D. 

[3rdCrucisLancers]

What, no Hawker Tempest V?  ;) 

You have a very nice collection there.  I'm a big fan of the Spitfire as well.  I like that you did "Hammy" Grey's Corsair.  O0

I want to get a Tempest V, but not as much as a Sea Fury or Tempest II.

I have a few that are sitting in my closet that I haven't finish.  In fact, I haven't touched them since before the last time this topic came up.  I have an Academy 1/72 scale Spitfire XIV that I only got as far as painting the cockpit.  I also have, all in 1/72 scale and in various stages of completion: P-40B, P-51C, F4U-1A, Hawker Tempest V, and a P-47D. 

The Academy Spitfire XIV is unfortunately bloated, but probably the most available option for the XIV. The Fujimi XIV kits are probably my favorite for the mark, but with S&H you're looking at circa twenty bucks for one on ebay. If you put them side by side, the difference is marked.

I want to do a UK P-47, but haven't had the time or funds to track down the appropriate decals yet.

[bytor]

I want to do a UK P-47, but haven't had the time or funds to track down the appropriate decals yet.

I was actually thinking about doing something similar with the P-47 I have, making it a Thunderbolt II from one of the SEAC squadrons.

[3rdCrucisLancers]

I was actually thinking about doing something similar with the P-47 I have, making it a Thunderbolt II from one of the SEAC squadrons.

Sweet! Let me know how it goes for you, I'd love to see that.